Startup Nation’s dark side

Israel may top the tables in innovation, but the benefits need to be more widely diffused.

São Paulo, Brazil – My wife and I are visiting this sprawling city of 11 million as part of a round-the-world trip that includes lecturing, research and some touring. I spoke here to several groups of entrepreneurs and academics about Israeli innovation and startups.While I expected to encounter some political protests – Brazil withdrew its ambassador to Israel in the wake of Operation Protective Edge – I found, instead, enormous curiosity about what Brazil can learn from Israel to catalyze its own high-tech start-ups. Prior to my talks, Technion Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman and Saul Singer, co-author of the best seller “Startup Nation,” also spoke here on the same topic.